Day 4 Rode a 66 miles from Hersey to Hart.
Woke up around 6:45 and checked my clothes to see if they dried out, but with the heavy dew mo change same old damp clothes, made coffee and Oatmeal(quick steel cut oats) with Peanut Butter and Honey, which has been my usual breakfast for the last 3 days. Packed up my wet clothes and got on the road around 8:45 not sure why it took 2 hours to get on the road, temperature was already in the lower 70's. I jumped back on the Pere-Marquette trail for about 5 miles and got off the trail and back on the road just before Reed City, this is where the pavement ends which then is a poorly maintained dirt trail.
I stopped around 11:00 to buy a gallon of water and top of my bottles the thermometer read 92 degrees. Then the hills started to get steeper and the humidity higher and then headwinds started to pick up, this is the 4 H's the cyclist worst conditions to be in Heat, Humidity, Headwinds and Hills.
So around 12:30 near a lake town, a Redneck couple walking down the street drinking Busch tall boys in a brown bag, they say to me as I was passing by "Yea baby it's gonna be a hot one today". Just to validate that they were real Rednecks...1 Drinking Busch beer, 2. Missing tooth or two, 3. sleeves torn off from shirt, that fits a Redneck profile. Well it sure was nice that someone concurred with me besides the weatherman that it will be hot one.
Stopped again around 2:30pm to cool off,s now its 97 degrees, I buy two gallons of cold water, one for dousing it over my head and the other to drink. My mapped stopping point is supposed to be Silver Lake State park so it looks like its another 25 miles and I have already rode 51 miles. So I get back on and started riding, my mapped route takes me to a dirt road. I remember when planning the route and reviewing the satellite maps that there was a dirt road and thought it would be nice to mix it up and have this as a change for scenery for about 3 miles. I took the road and this was was a very big mistake, it started out as packed dirt then became sandy, then wash boards every where, then hills where I had to get off the bike to push it in 97 degree heat. Then to top it all off, then came running toward me a barking German Shepard, but he stopped 20 feet from me, I gave him a look that sopped him in his tracks, then he just looked me like I was nuts, so I just kept on pushing my bike.That was the longest 3 miles on/off my bike so far.
I finally get into Hart around 4:00pm and I'm exhausted, still in the upper 90's and it doesn't feel like its gonna cool down for the night maybe in the 80's and that's not very comfortable sleeping weather. So I Google hotels on my phone and find 3 of them, 2 Hotels are booked then I called the Motel in-town and had rooms for $120, I said "That's a little steep, but I will take it". I rode 6 blocks checked in and he gave me a real door key, I cant remember the last time I used a real key for a room, actually I cant remember the last time I stayed in a Motel. But too my surprise the Motel was clean, comfortable and cool. Once I cooled off I went to Schooners to grab bite to eat. While eating and drinking margaritas I attempted to blog on Facebook, I wrote the Day 3 blog and posted it and never posted and lost all my data. So I gave up blogging on Facebook and that is why I'm using the Google blogger.
I headed back to the Motel and stopped at a gas station to pick up beer, but instead I purchased 3 Bud Margaritas. Stepped outside onto the Lido Deck(aka Parking lot) around 9:30pm, sat down on some fine plastic Adirondack furniture and lit up a cigar. From there I could see the Bank's marquee scrolling along with the temperature 90 degrees. I'm really glad I did not continue on to Silver Lake and camp for the night, there is no way I could have fallen asleep while sweating in a tent. So after my second drink around 10:15 the temperature now reads 89, that was my highlight for the night and maybe after my third one it will fall another degree. So by 11:00pm I'm finished and still read 89 degrees, then I call it a night. Google maps Bike route for today's ride http://goo.gl/maps/Ki1E7.
I stopped around 11:00 to buy a gallon of water and top of my bottles the thermometer read 92 degrees. Then the hills started to get steeper and the humidity higher and then headwinds started to pick up, this is the 4 H's the cyclist worst conditions to be in Heat, Humidity, Headwinds and Hills.
So around 12:30 near a lake town, a Redneck couple walking down the street drinking Busch tall boys in a brown bag, they say to me as I was passing by "Yea baby it's gonna be a hot one today". Just to validate that they were real Rednecks...1 Drinking Busch beer, 2. Missing tooth or two, 3. sleeves torn off from shirt, that fits a Redneck profile. Well it sure was nice that someone concurred with me besides the weatherman that it will be hot one.
Stopped again around 2:30pm to cool off,s now its 97 degrees, I buy two gallons of cold water, one for dousing it over my head and the other to drink. My mapped stopping point is supposed to be Silver Lake State park so it looks like its another 25 miles and I have already rode 51 miles. So I get back on and started riding, my mapped route takes me to a dirt road. I remember when planning the route and reviewing the satellite maps that there was a dirt road and thought it would be nice to mix it up and have this as a change for scenery for about 3 miles. I took the road and this was was a very big mistake, it started out as packed dirt then became sandy, then wash boards every where, then hills where I had to get off the bike to push it in 97 degree heat. Then to top it all off, then came running toward me a barking German Shepard, but he stopped 20 feet from me, I gave him a look that sopped him in his tracks, then he just looked me like I was nuts, so I just kept on pushing my bike.That was the longest 3 miles on/off my bike so far.
I finally get into Hart around 4:00pm and I'm exhausted, still in the upper 90's and it doesn't feel like its gonna cool down for the night maybe in the 80's and that's not very comfortable sleeping weather. So I Google hotels on my phone and find 3 of them, 2 Hotels are booked then I called the Motel in-town and had rooms for $120, I said "That's a little steep, but I will take it". I rode 6 blocks checked in and he gave me a real door key, I cant remember the last time I used a real key for a room, actually I cant remember the last time I stayed in a Motel. But too my surprise the Motel was clean, comfortable and cool. Once I cooled off I went to Schooners to grab bite to eat. While eating and drinking margaritas I attempted to blog on Facebook, I wrote the Day 3 blog and posted it and never posted and lost all my data. So I gave up blogging on Facebook and that is why I'm using the Google blogger.
I headed back to the Motel and stopped at a gas station to pick up beer, but instead I purchased 3 Bud Margaritas. Stepped outside onto the Lido Deck(aka Parking lot) around 9:30pm, sat down on some fine plastic Adirondack furniture and lit up a cigar. From there I could see the Bank's marquee scrolling along with the temperature 90 degrees. I'm really glad I did not continue on to Silver Lake and camp for the night, there is no way I could have fallen asleep while sweating in a tent. So after my second drink around 10:15 the temperature now reads 89, that was my highlight for the night and maybe after my third one it will fall another degree. So by 11:00pm I'm finished and still read 89 degrees, then I call it a night. Google maps Bike route for today's ride http://goo.gl/maps/Ki1E7.
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| Drying out my stuff, still wet in the Morning |
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| Hart Motel |
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| Schooners |
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